Appropriateness in and out of the classroom

I was checking my Facebook this morning and my boyfriend had left me an article titled: “Teacher Disciplined For Unusual Creative Writing Assignment.”

The first time I read the article I giggled at the prompt, shocked but found it amusing nonetheless. When I reread the article an hour later, the first thing that came to mind was, “What in the [blank] was this teacher thinking?”

The prompt was, “If you knocked your brother down, would you urinate in his mouth?”
No, I wouldn’t urinate in my brother’s mouth and to be honest, I really would not want to know if any of my students would either.

The article states that, “The question was designed to help motivate students to improve their writing.”

However, the action of knocking down and then urinating on another individual seems to convey a strong sense of aggressive, if not sexual, violence. Considering the consistent rise in student on student violence in public high schools, I am surprised this teacher was only reprimanded and not fired.

This also brings to mind my own experience with creative writing prompts from when I was in school.

My teacher wrote on the board, “Why do you think so many people are fat today?” A heavy girl raised her hand and said, “That is not appropriate.” The teacher erased the word fat and replaced it with “obese.” The girl bolted from the room crying.

As an educator, you have to realize that with your assignments you have to consider appropriateness with the information you give to students and how you teach it. You also have to accept that you are teaching a diverse body of students, such as in my personal example.

It does not stop there. You also have to be “appropriate” with everything you will do in your life—not just with assignments. Teaching becomes your life. You are a teacher. You are Miss, Ms, Mrs, Mr, _________. You are, to all your students, an example of how a responsible and educated adult thinks and acts. You are there to guide, not to be a best friend.

I think far too often people pursue teaching and forget this hidden rule—often with embarrassing results for the rest of us who try or want to teach with professionalism.

However, the truth is that most teachers do teach with a high level of professionalism, take their job very seriously, and spend late nights putting together lesson plans to further your children’s education.

Unfortunately those are never the educators we see on the news.

Heather